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CONTENTS. 

I. — The life of Joseph White with its historic anteced- 
ents. Arthur L. Perry. 

II. — The life of Joseph White, with tributes of friends. 

John Bascom. 

III. — Address at the funeral by the pastor, 

Austin B. Bassett. 

IV. — Address at the funeral by John Bascom. 

V. — Prayer by Franklin Carter. 



THE LIFE OF JOSEPH WHITE WITH ITS 
HISTORIC ANTECEDENTS. 



Joseph White sprang from a reputable and influential 
family, earliest settled in the middle valley of the Deerfield 
River. Capt. Moses Rice, born in Sudbury, October 27, 
1694, himself a great-grandson of Edmund Rice, who 
emigrated from Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire, England, 
and settled in Sudbury in 1638, was a great-great-grand- 
father of Joseph White. Capt. Rice, then a resident of 
Rutland, in the County of Worcester, purchased two 
thousand two hundred and fifty acres of land in April, 
1741, lying along the Deerfield River in the present town 
of Charlemont. These lands lay on the north bank of the 
river, partly meadow and partly upland, and the present 
road from Deerfield to the Hoosac Tunnel runs through 
.their entire length. 

In the spring of 1743, Moses Rice came to his purchase 
in the primeval forest, preparatory to settling upon it 
with his family ; and the huge buttonwood growing by 
the roadside is still pointed out, under which, according 
to the statement of his son, Sylvanus Rice, and handed 
down to us by the latter's daughter, the late Mrs. Fuller, 
ii he had slept under the buttonwood tree when there was no 
other white person in town" His first low cabin, when 
builded near the buttonwood, of logs felled by his own 
strong arm, was the very first erected between Deerfield 
and the Hoosac Mountain ; and his wife and five minor 
children when gathered beneath the roof -tree, such as it 
was, were the first family to lift the voice of industry and 
the notes of prayer and praise in the whole stretch of that 



winding valley, now so beautiful in its green meadows 
and so strong in its guardian hills. 

The next year after Capt. Rice had set up his household 
gods on the river bank, Col. Timothy Dwight of North- 
ampton, under the military direction of Gov. Shirley, and 
in prospect of the war with France, which was proclaimed 
at Boston in June, ran as a surveyor an east and west 
line from the Connecticut River at Northfield through 
Colerain to the Hoosac Mountain for a cordon of forts to 
protect the Deerfield valley and the Connecticut against 
the French and Indians. During that summer of 1744, 
and on Dwight's line, were built Fort Shirley in the 
present town of Heath, and Fort Pelham in the present 
town of Rowe, both of them about four miles north of the 
Deerfield, and each of them built on brooks running par- 
allel about four miles apart down to the Deerfield. The 
construction of these forts, under the immediate orders 
of Col. John Stoddard of Northampton, made Capt. Rice 
an important person in their neighborhood, and his house 
an important stopping-place for officers and soldiers on 
their way to and from the forts, because it was then the 
only house west of Deerfield along that river. Indeed, 
Stoddard had made a contract with Rice to draw the tim- 
bers for one of the forts to the place of construction ; but 
as the latter failed in some points to come to time, and 
as the former was a remarkably prompt man, both forts 
were actually constructed under the immediate direction 
of William Williams, afterwards the patriarch of Pitts- 
field. 

Still, Rice was constantly trusted by Gov. Shirley and 
his military subordinates throughout that war, and his 
house was the rendezvous for everybody concerned in the 
public events of that region. Rice himself and his sons 



were at times soldiers for considerable intervals in one or 
other of the two forts above him on the uplands ; and 
Capt. Ephrahn Williams, long time the commandant of 
the line of forts, and afterwards the founder of Williams 
College, was often sheltered under that roof as he passed 
from Shirley and Pelham forts to Fort Massachusetts and 
back again. Chaplain John Norton has the following 
entry in his diary : " Thursday, August 14, 1746, I left 
Fort Shirley in company with Dr. Thomas Williams, and 
about fourteen of the soldiers ; we went to Pelham Fort, 
and from thence to Capt. Rice's, where we lodged that 
night." 

The good chaplain reached Fort Massachusetts the 
next day, where he "designed to have tarried about a 
month ; " but the fort was almost immediately invested 
by a large force of French and Indians, who compelled its 
surrender on the 20th, burned it to the ground, and carried 
its garrison (chaplain and all) captives to Canada. A part 
of this hostile force, however, pressed on from the charred 
site of Fort Massachusetts to Deerfield, burning Rice's 
house on their way, the only one intervening between the 
two points. In a petition to the General Court, made six 
years afterwards, Rice himself described the desolation of 
his home : "And returning, in order to take care of his 
things, found his house was burnt, with a good stock of 
provision therein (or carried away) by the enemy, as was 
all his household goods, with a considerable parcel of 
clothing, his stock of cattle, being seven oxen and cows, 
together with six very good fat hogs, were all killed by 
the enemy, — his crop of grain, at least three hundred 
bushel, with all his hay, husbandry tools, and many other 
things, all destroyed — his loss being at least fifteen hun- 
dred pounds, old tenor." 



In the same petition Capt. Rice described his general 
position during that war, as follows : ' ' That his living 
was of great service, as he humbly apprehends, to the 
public, as being the only house where people could be 
supplied ; and, as soldiers were often traveling that way, 
as well as small parties of scouts, it was very expensive to 
your petitioner, who often supplied them at his own costs." 

After the peace of Aix la Chapelle, Capt. Rice, who in 
the meantime had gone back to Rutland with his family, 
returned to his desolated homestead on the Deerfield, 
rebuilt his house upon the same site, and continued the 
chief man in the now increasing settlement, until in the 
next and last French and Indian war, on the 11th of 
June, 1755, Capt. Rice, with his son, Artemas Rice, and 
grandson, Asa Rice, with several others, was hoeing corn 
in his meadow just south of the present village road, 
when a party of six Indians concealed by the brushwood 
of a brook, suddenly fired upon and then rushed upon the 
working party, whose fire-arms had been placed against a 
pile of logs near by. Phineas Arms fell instantly dead 
in the cornfield, while Capt. Rice received a severe wound 
in the thigh, and was taken prisoner with his grandson 
and one other. The three captives were taken to the high 
plain in the rear of the present public house in Charle- 
mont Village, where the old man, after a fearful struggle 
with the single savage to whom he was given over, fell 
beneath the tomahawk, was scalped, and left bleeding to 
die after some hours. The other two prisoners were led 
to Crown Point, and thence to Canada, whence the grand- 
son was ransomed after a captivity of six years ; and 
Titus King, the other, a relative of Capt. Rice, being 
carried to France and then to England, at length returned 
to Northampton, his native place. 



Joseph White's mother was Rebecca Rice in the direct 
line, and his childhood and youth in Charlemont was 
nurtured in all the traditions of this large family, and 
familiarized with all the geographical localities in which 
they had lived and wrought for generation after genera- 
tion. His mind received a color and his character a tone 
from all these peculiarities of birth and training ; the spirit 
of his educational development and the whole course of 
his life were altered in consequence of them ; and no one 
could understand Mr. White thoroughly, or comprehend 
his apparent aberrations from a straightforward career in 
life, who did not perceive the direction in which his chief 
intellectual interest lay and the sort of facts which easiest 
and most permanently roused his emotions. As the cen- 
tennial of the Charlemont massacre approached, it was 
determined by him and by Mr. O. B. Potter of New 
York, his own cousin on the Rice side, that there should 
be an historical commemoration of Capt. Moses Rice on 
the anniversary of the fateful day, June 11, 1855, and of 
his compeers also, in the original plantation of Charle- 
mont ; and that an elaborate monument should be erected 
and publicly dedicated over his grave and that of Phineas 
Arms killed by the same Indian volley, while at the same 
time it was wisely decided to allow the rude but enduring 
contemporary headstones to remain in their place by the 
side of the monument. 

It naturally fell to Mr. White to prepare and deliver 
the historical discourse upon that interesting occasion. It 
was a labor of love. It fell in with the deepest currents 
of his being, both intellectual and religious. He took 
time for its preparation, which was thoroughly done. He 
searched the archives in the Secretary's office at Boston, 
and was rewarded by the discovery of precious documents, 



which he knew how to interpret, whose significance he 
inwrought with the results of other eareful investigations, 
and with the sif tings of tenacious memories, his own and 
hosts of others, into a permanent and eloquent chronicle, 
which remains as his most vital and valuable contribution 
to the literature of his time. 

Of scarcely less consequence to his life and labors 
than this Rice genealogy in which he stood, was the bit 
of heredity connecting him in the direct line with John 
White, who emigrated early from the west of England with 
his two sons, Josiah and Thomas, and settled in Lancas- 
ter, Massachusetts. A great-grandson of this first immi- 
grant was Jonathan (Col.), born at Lancaster, March 31, 
1 709 . Here he became a prominent actor in all enterprises 
for the public good — in establishing schools ; in building 
a house for public worship, and settling a minister ; and 
in organizing a church, of which he was chosen the first 
deacon in 1743. Wilder's "History of Lancaster" says of 
him : "Col. Jonathan White was the greatest landholder, 
the most wealthy man, the best educated person then in 
town and a perfect gentleman of those days." 

This Col. Jonathan White held the commission of 
Major, and afterwards that of Lieutenant-Colonel, in 
.Col. Timothy Ruggles' regiment of "New Levies," which 
marched against Crown Point under Sir William Johnson 
in the summer of 1755 ; and was present with his regiment 
at the so-called "Battle of Lake George," September 8th 
of that year, in which the French general commanding, 
Baron de Dieskau, was defeated and taken prisoner. In 
this battle Ruggles' officers and men fought alongside 
the officers and men of the regiment of Col. Ephraim 
Williams, the founder of Williams College, although the 
brave Colonel himself had been killed that morning in 



the so-called "bloody morning scout" about two miles 
south of Lake George. The fact that his great-grand- 
father fought in that battle, and that the sword he wore 
at that time finally descended to him, of course early 
interested Joseph White in that campaign, and in all the 
combatants in it. He became interested as a boy in 
Williams College in consequence ; still more interested 
as a student, a tutor, an alumnus, a trustee ; and when 
the centennial of the death of Col. Williams came round, 
also in the year 1855, there was no other one of their 
number so intelligent and everyway competent as he, 
whom the Alumni could appoint to deliver their commem- 
orative oration upon the founder of the college. Next 
to his discourse at Charlemont, his effort here the same 
summer proved to be his most eloquent and permanent 
contribution to the literature of his time. Mr. White 
was always a natural orator ; partly because his emotional 
nature was quick and strong in its action, partly because 
he was painstaking in his preparation, and partly, too, 
because he had a penetrating instinct as to the popular 
tastes and interests. 

Col. Jonathan White's Lake George sword passed to 
his son, Col. Asaph White, and then to his son, Capt. 
Joseph White, and finally to his son, Mr. Joseph White ; 
who, having no children, thoughtfully presented it to Wil- 
liams College, in whose historical museum in Clark Hall 
it is exhibited alongside the sword of Col. Williams him- 
self, found on his person the next morning after the fight, 
and the sword also of Col. Thomas Williams, uterine 
brother of Ephraim, who succeeded to the command of 
his regiment at Lake George. 

In Mr. White's childhood and youth in Charlemont, not 
only were the traditions of the old French wars lively, and 



located both personally and geographically, but still more 
so in both respects the traditions of the Revolutionary 
War. Col. Hugh Maxwell of Charlemont was eight years 
in the service without a break, much of the time as the 
right-hand-man of Gen. Heath, after whom the new town- 
ship set off from the old by Maxwell's efforts in 1785 was 
named, and is still called "Heath." Maxwell's descen- 
dants were still the leading people of the town at its cen- 
tennial celebration in 1885. Capt. Oliver Avery also, 
with thirty-four men from Charlemont and eighteen from 
Rowe, marched to Cambridge immediately after the en- 
gagements at Concord and Lexington, and the company 
served throughout the war. Of this number was Josiah 
Pierce, who fired at the enemy in the Bunker's Hill battle, 
forty-seven bullets, with an unerring aim which was pro- 
verbial in his time, and who lived to tell and retell his own 
and others' exploits till the middle of the present century. 
Ebenezer Fales was killed in that battle, and Hugh Max- 
well dangerously wounded. 

Mr. White's own grandfather, Samuel Rice, was a 
scarred veteran of the Revolution, and lived to pour into 
the eager ears of his grandson tales of his own sufferings 
in and escape from captivity in Canada, — tales also of 
what he saw with his own eyes and heard with his own 
ears. He witnessed the quarrel between Ethan Allen and 
Benedict Arnold on the east brink of Lake Champlain in 
the gray of the morning of May 10, 1775, when Arnold 
claimed precedence at the head of the column about to 
enter the fortress of Ticonderoga ; Allen had the best 
right, and the men who had followed him so far, forty- 
one of them men of Williamstown and Hancock under 
Israel Harris, insisted that they would follow no other in 
the approaching attack on the Fort ; Arnold yielded to 



the inevitable, but with a very bad grace ; for Samuel 
Rice used to say, that Arnold at this point struck Allen a 
heavy blow on the shoulder with the fiat of his sword, so 
that the scabbard slipped off into the water ; and when 
the Charlemont boy expressed dilated surprise that Allen 
did not resent such an insult, the rejoinder was : "Allen 
hadn't got no grit, Joe ! " 

This Samuel Rice, like his neighbor, Hugh Maxwell, 
suffered fearfully from the inconvertible Continental mon- 
ey. The war was over, the money was worthless, and 
the returned veterans were heavily in debt. The courts 
were opened again, civil process against debtors began to 
be enforced by the sheriff and his deputies, and the move- 
ment in Western Massachusetts, that later came to a head 
under Daniel Shays, was stirring the hearts of all the old 
soldiers. Debts contracted to support the mother and the 
children, while the father was away in the war, hung over 
his little property when he returned, unpaid. Legal pro- 
cess was resorted to to collect them. The deputy-sheriff, 
who was an old friend of the veteran, came to the cabin 
with the warrant in his hands to attach it, and its con- 
tents. Rice was a carpenter by trade, and he took his 
stand in the open door, with his broad-ax in his powerful 
right hand, and thus accosted the deputy as he approached 
to enter : ii Tve known ye long, and Hove ye like a brother, 
but if ye try to cross this threshold, Til split ye from your 
crown to your heels!" 

"And he would have done it, too," was the usual com- 
ment of the grandson as he related the incident. Such 
associations as these with persons, and especially with 
family and local traditions, gave a permanent bent to the 
boy's mind, and to the favorite studies of a lifetime. He 
gradually became fond of biography and history ; he bur- 



rowed in his leisure in the records of the old French Wars ; 
he became very familiar with the revolutionary campaigns, 
especially at the northward, and with the pre-revolution- 
ary and post-revolutionary heroes generally ; and he slow- 
ly acquired what came to be by far the most valuable 
private library in Williamstown, being particularly rich in 
the special lines but just now indicated. 

When he was sixteen years old, he made his first visit 
to Williamstown. His father, Capt. Joseph White, was 
a cloth-dresser, who drew his customers from a very wide 
circuit. He had done work, for example, for the Smed- 
leys, at that time an important family here ; and the boy 
crossed the mountain on horseback by the present road, 
which had been laid out and built by his grandfather, 
Col. Asaph White, with a message to the Smedleys that 
assured him of hospitality over the commencement of 
1827. That was a somewhat famous commencement, on 
two grounds. The graduating class consisted of twenty- 
six men, sixteen of them being among the founders and 
members of the "Williams College Temperance Society," 
whose constitution and membership have been fortunately 
preserved to us. Eleven out of the eighteen members of 
the class of 1828 belonged to it, thirteen out of twenty- 
one of the class of 1829 also, and ten out of twenty-eight 
of the class of 1830. Temperance, then a newly organized 
thing in New England, prominently appeared on the com- 
mencement stage in 1827, especially in the "Colloquy," 
in which Asahel Foote displayed remarkable powers of 
irony and sarcasm, which not only took mightily with the 
audience, including the boy White, but also is said to have 
visibly shaken the sides of the gigantic President Griffin, 
extra dignified in his cap and gown. Young White had 
secured an early seat in the gallery, which he only quitted 



at the noon intermission long enough to secure a cake of 
gingerbread for his dinner of one of the peddlers, who at 
that time thronged the space in the rear of the church. 

The afternoon furnished him a greater treat still. The 
valedictory oration and the conferring of the degrees, and 
particularly the Master's oration, delivered that year by 
Mark Hopkins, on "Mystery," impressed the boy beyond 
measure, and made him resolve then and there if it were 
a possible thing, he would go to college himself. That 
Master's oration, by the way, published a short time after- 
wards in ii Silliman's Journal," in New Haven (Professor 
Silliman having been present here at that commencement) , 
was the very beginning of the public reputation of Mark 
Hopkins. Three years later he was appointed Professor 
of Rhetoric ; and in 1836, on the very day when White, 
in accordance with his purpose formed nine years before, 
appeared on the commencement stage to speak and to be 
graduated, was elected by the trustees President of the 
College. It is very doubtful, however, whether he would 
have been chosen at that time, had it not been for the 
class of which White was an influential member. The 
trustees thought Hopkins too young (he was thirty-four) , 
and elected Absalom Peters president, who declined. 
This class, who had enjoyed the services of the Professor 
throughout the senior year in the studies usually taught 
by Dr. Griffin, as well as in his own, sent in to the trus- 
tees a paper in token of their warm approbation of his 
work in both directions. "If the boys tvant him, let 'em 
have him!" was the exclamatory word of Dr. Shepard 
of the trustees, and the body followed suit immediately. 

After teaching for a while, one year in the College as 
a tutor, Mr. White studied law in Troy with M. I. Town- 
send, W. C. '33, and practiced for some years with his 



brother-in-law thei*e, A. B. Olin, W. C. '35. But he never 
took much root as a lawyer. He disliked the manners, 
the quibbles and the quarrels of the bar. In looking 
up a case, it was its historical aspect and relations that 
interested him rather than its purely legal bearings ; and 
he would sometimes spend days and nights in arduous 
research into these remoter matters, which, however prof- 
itable to himself in the development of his own mind, was 
the opposite of profitable to his clients and to his partner. 
Unfortunately, also, he became a popular young Whig 
orator in the political campaigns of the period. The 
career of Daniel Webster and of Rufus Choate dazzled 
him, as it did many other young men of the time to their 
detriment. The principal stock in trade of the political 
orators of that decade was the tariff-question, a question 
of which most of the speakers on both sides were pro- 
foundly ignorant, and of which Mr. White in his old age 
used freely and playfully to acknowledge that he knew 
absolutely nothing. Still, in this way he became practiced 
in public-speaking, an art of which he was fond, and in 
which he became skilled. 

Dr. Beaman was the pastor of the First Presbyterian 
church in Troy while Mr. White was a resident of that 
city, and the relations between the two men gradually 
came to be intimate and very helpful to both. The relig- 
ious character of the younger man rounded out under the 
stimulating preaching and uplifting impulses generally of 
the elder one ; and Mr. White fairly entered upon what 
was the most distinguishing characteristic of his whole 
life, namely, intelligent fidelity as a layman in all de- 
partments of church work, particularly in an earnest and 
comprehensive study of the Scriptures in relation to and 
preparation for Bible-class instruction. An excellent por- 



trait of Dr. Beaman has hung for many years in Mr. 
White's private library, and is hanging there still. No 
lapse of time ever seemed to obliterate his sense of obli- 
gation to this pastor, or to cool his expression of admir- 
ation for him. 

When Mr. White abandoned the law, and went to 
Lowell to live as an agent for one of the cotton corpora- 
tions there, there was no great change in the general 
tenor of his life. He continued to make upon occasion 
political speeches for the then and always moribund 
Whig party, which added little to his reputation, though 
it offered scope to some exceptionally fine oratorical 
powers ; and he was elected to the State Senate from 
Lowell for one winter, in which he was colleague with 
the gentle and genial Dr. Sabin of Williamstown, with 
whom he had been a colleague in the corporation of the 
College since 1848, in which capacity they served together 
till Dr. Sabin's death in 1884. His church and Sunday- 
school work in Lowell was largely profitable to himself 
and others. It was apparent already, that his deepest 
impress upon his generation would be made, as was most 
fit, at the point of Christian influence and example. 

In 1860, Mr. White, who had become secretary and 
treasurer of the college the year before on the death of 
Judge Daniel N. Dewey, was made Secretary of the Board 
of Education of the State of Massachusetts, a place he 
held for seventeen years. This was a greatly important 
post, and one difficult to fill after the extraordinary labors 
of Horace Mann for eleven years, and the striking activity 
in it of George S. Boutwell. But his lectures as secretary 
and his teachers' institutes held all over the State, which 
were always popular and successful, brought into play his 
early training in extempore speaking, his store of knowl- 

3 



edge as to the history of Massachusetts, his remarkable 
familiarity with the biographical details of its great men, 
and his taste and skill in handling picturesque and illus- 
trative incidents. By much the most successful work of 
his life was accomplished during these seventeen years. 
They had their trials and limitations of course, like all 
other successful human work everywhere. His own quick 
temper was an infirmity. An indolent habit of mind and 
body, a native tendency to postpone impending duty, and 
a consequent facility of throwing off, perhaps at a late 
hour, upon other shoulders responsibilities which were 
properly his own, marred more or less during all his later 
years his services both to the public and the college. His 
religious life and service, however, knew no intermissions. 
His faith grew simpler and steadier and stronger as his 
years increased. His interest in the Bible and his Bible- 
class diminished not as his years increased. As a deacon 
in the church, he grew more tender and exemplary, as 
a constant attendant at the weekly prayer-meeting, his 
contributions to its spiritual and uplifting power were 
noticeable and apparently indispensable ; his native imag- 
ination, to which he had always given a chastened scope, 
enabled him to mount up as on eagles' wings, and help 
to bear others along with him ; and his naturally fervid 
emotions responded promptly to every spiritual call. 

For the last dozen years of his life he frequented with 
great regularity the quarterly meetings of the Berkshire 
Historical and Scientific Society at Pittsfield. For three 
years he was its President. He did his share of its work. 
His presence there was always a stimulus and a benedic- 
tion to others ; he could correct their mistakes, upon occa- 
sion ; and he appreciated, as few men are able to do, the 
care and the insight and the vigilence needful to conduct 



to a successful issue auy genuine historical investigation. 
In person, Mr. White was tall, symmetrically built, and 
in his prime strikingly handsome. He took much more 
than an ordinary gentleman's pains with his personal 
appearance. He dressed expensively, but never extrava- 
gantly. By economy in its best sense he came to possess 
and enjo} 7 a competent estate. He had no children, and 
the wife of his youth survives him. He was born at 
Charlemont, November 18, 1811, and died two or three 
days after entering his 80th year. 



THE LIFE OF JOSEPH WHITE, WITH TRIBUTES 
OF FRIENDS. 



The parentage of Joseph White, the period and place 
of his birth and his rearing were all fitted to call out 
patriotism and give the love of country distinct and 
passionate expression. Charlemont, a secluded village 
in the midst of bold, beautiful scenery, on the banks of 
the Deerfield, pouring with unfailing energy through its 
deep mountain valley, begat and nourished local attach- 
ment and the love of nature. Born November 18, 1811, 
his childhood was but little farther removed from the 
war of the Revolution than we are from that of the 
Rebellion. He began to gather the first impressions of 
life during the second struggle with England. Charle- 
mont, under the shadow of the forts originally designed 
to protect our northern border, directly felt and fanned 
the martial sentiment. It had reminiscenses of war which 
could not but deeply move the restless spirit of a boy. 
Massachusetts had then many a nook well fitted to grow 
sturdy men, and Charlemont was manifestly one of them. 

Joseph spent his youth within the circle of the influence 
of Williams College ; and a visit to it one Commencement 
day awakened a desire which passed into a fixed resolve, 
to secure a liberal education. 

He began to prepare for college, aiding himself by the 
unfailing resource of school-teaching. He attended for 
a time the Academy in Bennington, and then entered 
Williams in the class of '36. His education, the fruit of 
his own exertions, and received within this well-defined 



and stirring historic area, served to widen and strengthen 
his local and civic ties. 

Professor John Tatlock and Dr. Crawford of Deerfield, 
with whom he maintained a warm friendship through life, 
were his classmates. The three became tutors in the 
college. 

"Though Mr. White's preliminary course had been 
brief, he made up for it by faithful study, and was 
early numbered among the best scholars in his class. He 
was remembered among his fellow-students as staid and 
dignified, and always on the side of right. He graduated 
with the first English oration. After leaving College he 
taught several months in the Seminary at Bennington. 

"In March, 1837, he began the study of law in the 
office of Judge J. D. Willard, of Troy, N. Y., going thence 
in October following to that of Hon. Martin I. Townsend 
& Brother, where he remained until January, 1839. He 
then returned to his Alma Mater as tutor, serving in that 
office until Commencement of 1840. In 1841, he married 
Miss Hannah Danforth, of Williamstown, and soon after, 
returning to Troy, he entered the legal profession in 
partnership with his brother-in-law, the late Hon. A. B. 
Olin. This connection continued for several years. While 
residing in Troy, Mr. White became connected with the 
Presbyterian church ; to this he made himself greatly 
useful ; and to the day of his death he lived a consistent, 
practical, Christian life. He was liberal toward the faith 
of others, but devoted and zealous in maintaining and 
exemplifying his own. 

"In December, 1848, he removed to Lowell, Mass., 
where as agent he took charge of the Massachusetts Cot- 
ton Mills, one of the largest manufacturing corporations 
in New England. Meanwhile he was elected a member 



of the Massachusetts Senate, serving during the session 
of 1857, and acting as chairman of two important com- 
mittees. He was also chairman of a special Committee 
on Retrenchment and Reform. In 1858 he was appointed 
Bank Commissioner, which office he resigned in 1860. 

"In 1848 Mr. White was elected trustee of Williams 
College. At Commencement, 1855, he delivered an ora- 
tion before the Society of Alumni in memorial of the 
founder, Ephraim Williams. In March, 1859, he was 
chosen college treasurer. He accepted the position, and 
on the first of January following removed to Williams- 
town, where he has since resided. 

u In July, 1860, he received the appointment of secre- 
tary of the State Board of Education, and continued in 
the discharge of the very exacting duties of that office 
until May, 1876, a period of nearly sixteen years. Mr. 
White was a firm friend of the High Schools, and was in- 
strumental in securing their establishment in many towns ; 
he was heartily opposed to the District system, and secur- 
ed its first abolition ; and when it was again restored, 
he dealt it hard blows, which had their effect in its final 
abandonment. He was an earnest advocate for a general 
tax upon the whole State valuation, for the support, in part, 
of the public schools. This measure passed the House of 
of Representatives by a large vote, and only wanted one 
in the Senate to become a law. Mr. White always kept 
in mind the needs of the poorer towns of the State, and it 
was with sad regret that, having remained longer in the 
office than was his desire, he retired from the secretary- 
ship without securing the passage of this just and benefi- 
cent act. He was instrumental in bringing into the schools 
a system of industrial drawing, and of establishing the 
Normal Art School, for the training of teachers in the art. 



He was a sympathizing friend of the teachers, and always 
an advocate of advanced methods. 

u In 1868, Yale College conferred on him the honorary 
degree of LL. D. A second time, in 1875, Mr. White 
served as a member of the State Legislature, and was 
chairman of the Joint Committee on Education. During 
recent years he has withdrawn himself from public office, 
giving his time mainly to his duties in connection with the 
college at Williamstown and to the management of his 
farm and home affairs. At the College Commencement in 
1886 he resigned his position at treasurer of the college." 
— Necrology of Massachusetts Teachers' Association, by 
Geo. A. Walton. 

Mr. White was closely and widely identified with the 
interests of education from his youth up. Starting in 
the ranks as a teacher of a district school, he attained 
the highest position in public instruction in the gift of 
the State. He brought to all his work a liberal and pro- 
gressive spirit. He was closely associated with Williams 
College as an active trustee for forty-two years ; and also 
with Smith College from its foundation. Of the latter 
institution, he was appointed trustee by the donor of its 
funds, and frequently consulted by her in the formation 
of plans concerning it. He warmly favored Northampton 
as the seat of the institution, and was influential in secur- 
ing that location. 

His life was devoted to the service of the public in its 
most important, though not most conspicuous, interests. 

" Mr. White's death is a loss to the community in which 
he lived, and to Berkshire County and the State. His 
force of character, high motives and public spirit made 
him a pillar of strength to society and the church, and a 
power for good wherever his influence was felt. He was 



deeply interested in church work at home and also in 
religious progress throughout the world. His long identi- 
fication with Williams College made him seem a part of 
it. He was a close observer of current affairs and every 
movement for the amelioration and uplifting of the race 
the world over had his earnest sympathy and support. 
His life was a blessing to his fellow men and an example 
well worthy of emulation, and the end was as peaceful as 
the setting of the sun at the close of a long and perfect 
day." — The North Adams Transcript, Nov. 27, 1890. 

His classmate, Dr. Crawford, says of him : u In college 
Mr. White, like myself and some others of the class, was 
at first at a disadvantage for want of thorough preparation 
to begin with. But he was assiduous and persevering in 
his studies, and notwithstanding we had some strong men 
among us, he very soon took rank with the first. There, 
by dint of application, he kept all through the course. 
True, perhaps, he was not a genius ; he was not specially 
brilliant in any particular line of studies, but what is bet- 
ter, he was prompt and accurate in them all. And this 
has been characteristic of him in all the varied positions 
and offices to which he has been called in subsequent life. 
Not a genius, not sporadic, he was a man of affairs, having 
a good judgment, and good, common sense, and the power 
of adapting himself to new duties and circumstances as 
they presented themselves. While in college he was highly 
esteemed by all, both as a scholar and as a man, correct 
and dignified in his deportment, a pleasant companion, and 
always on the side of right. He graduated with honor, 
having the first English oration. 

" The life of Mr. White was not one of sloth or easy 
self-indulgence ; nor was it one of mere self-seeking. He 



was a busy man, modest and retiring, but self-reliant 
and industrious. He was careful and saving in personal 
matters, but lived amply and was nobly generous. Few 
men during the course of a long life have held so many 
and important positions, and of such varied character, 
filling them all with ability and credit, exerting on each 
an influence healthful and lasting. He was a man of fine 
presence, a fair and genial countenance, and in his old age 
venerable with hair silken- white, — one who might well be 
called ' a gentleman of the old school.' He had a large 
acquaintance with men, and friendly tact in dealing with 
them, a high sense of honor and right, and throughout his 
long and varied career not even the suspicion of a dis- 
honest or dishonorable act ever attached to his name. 

"He was greatly influential in his town affairs, took an 
active part in their management, and was often moderator 
of the town meeting, having the fullest confidence of his 
fellow-townsmen of all parties. He had a like standing 
and interest in church matters ; a devout member of long 
standing, and for a number of years deacon of the Con- 
gregational church, active and useful and to almost the 
close of his life a teacher of a large adult class in the 
Sunday school. 

"Withal, he was an attractive and elegant speaker, 
clear and forcible, and specially apt in impromptu efforts. 
He had made this a study, and his long experience in pub- 
lic life had given him ample opportunity for its practice. 

" Mr. White was a good type of the best New England 
manhood, proud of his origin and belongings, and a loving 
investigator all his life of New England institutions and 
history. Few men have been better informed, or could 
reason more intelligently, with regard to the things which 
have made the life of this section what it is." 



My own recollections of Mr. White are almost wholly 
associated with Williamstown, its college and church, its 
schools and town affairs. Early in his residence with us, 
school questions of much moment came before the town 
for its immediate action. The need of a high-school and 
a high-school building had become urgent. It was very 
necessary that the districts should be re-arranged and re- 
duced in number, and that new school houses should be 
built throughout the town. Worthy and influential citizens 
were slow to feel the urgency of these demands, and pro- 
tracted and warm discussion was called out. Mr. White 
brought his influence to bear powerfully and persuasively 
in this contest, and the effort was ultimately crowned 
with complete success. 

Mr. White was a man of fine presence, agreeable address, 
and was an animated and sympathetic speaker. He pos- 
sessed a mobile, emotional nature which easily came to the 
surface in speech, and aroused an immediate popular re- 
sponse. The town meetings of Williamstown have been 
remarkable in this respect. A number of citizens like Mr. 
White and Dr. Henry L. Sabin and others still with us, 
have at once invested with importance town affairs of any 
considerable moment, and have brought to them a sur- 
prising pathos. Passing through the valley of Baca, they 
have made it a well. The word, Berkshire, has had for 
them as many and as liquid syllables as the word, Jeru- 
salem. The result has been constant, animated and in- 
structive deliberation on the business of the town. " 4 A 
community of persons, living within prescribed limits under 
self-imposed laws,' was to Mr. White a divine institution, 
and he was averse to all legislation which tended to impair 
the autonomy of the town." He felt the popular life, be- 
lieved in the popular life, and did all that he could to 



expand and improve it. The pictures of memory which 
most spontaneously arise of him will always be those of 
the public assemblies in which he so long acted the part 
of an influential and patriotic citizen. His latter years 
were marked by failing strength, though he retained, almost 
to the very end, a comfortable possession of his powers. 
His death occurred November 30, 1890. The funeral 
services were held on the following Sunday in the Congre- 
gational church under the direction of its pastor, A. B. 
Bassett, assisted by Dr. Bascom and President Carter. 



ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL BY THE PASTOR. 



Two feelings are in all our hearts to-day. Respect for 
a good citizen and love for a good man have brought us 
here. In our thought of Mr. White honor and affection 
blend. Our sense of loss takes color and intensity from 
both. As his pastor, it is my privilege to remind you of 
those qualities in him which our love has long since fixed 
upon and which memory now holds tenaciously ; to speak 
of him as the good man, the Christian, and as an officer 
in this church. Some thirty years ago Mr. White came 
permanently into the life of this village in the full maturity 
of his powers. His practice of law in early manhood, a 
later business experience, service as a public official and 
finally as Secretary of the State Board of Education had 
given him contact with life in many of its phases, a broad 
interest in the problems of our time and an acquaintance 
with the ruling principles in national, state and local 
government. To the town, endeared to him by the asso- 
ciations of his student years, and to the College, which he 
never ceased to love, he brought his mature wisdom and 
wholesome influence. Here the fruit of his life ripened, to 
the profit of this community in its educational, civil and 
religious interests. Even since the decline of strength in 
these last years has narrowed his activities, the benignity 
of his example and his counsel has been felt wherever that 
courtly figure moved or that magnetic voice was heard. 
And if I have rightly judged our venerable brother and 
his influence, his life for the last score of years has been 
beautiful in a rare degree. "The beauty of the Lord" 



has been upon it. Life has two periods of beauty. There 
is a beauty of youth. Hope is on the young man's brow. 
Fair promises shine from his eye. An eager energy stirs 
in every nerve and muscle. Yet it is but the beauty of 
promise. In it there is uncertainty and the risk of failure. 
There is also a beauty of old age, rarer but more satisfying. 
Nor does it lie only in the dignified mien and the snow- 
crowned head. It is the beauty of work well done ; of life 
well lived; when all is safe. That beauty cannot fade. 
It shines more and more unto the perfect day. Such 
beauty marked this aged man's life among us. For his 
work had been established upon him. His manifold activ- 
ities of brain and heart had wrought a double benefit ; one 
of outward achievement, the other of well rounded Chris- 
tian character. Life's toils and changes, under the divine 
discipline and by his own choices, had left in him the best 
and priceless product of his labors — the beauty of the 
Lord. He has been to us and is still in memory a reve- 
lation of what life can do for a man ; or better, what moral 
wealth a man can win from his life. Of his personal 
traits we remember to-day that gracious courtesy with 
which be brightened social relations. It was a courtesy 
marked often by a humility deeply Christian in its prompt- 
ing ; and which flowed out very touchingly towards those 
younger or weaker than himself, whom he might easily 
have overborne, as some of us here could testify from 
grateful experience of it. He had learned, too, the law of 
love. His was a tender heart. Eye and voice were proof 
of that. You could know it, too, by his words regarding 
his brethren in the church, and indeed in the community 
at large, especially such as were in moral peril. There 
was frequent practical evidence of it in the aid he gave to 
the friendless and the struggling. Yesterday a man said 



to me : "We poor men have lost a good friend, 'twill be 
long before we see his like again." In his piety a child- 
like simplicity of feeling and expression was united to 
broad religious knowledge and settled convictions. This 
simplicity was frequently disclosed in our church meetings 
for social prayer, where he was a constant attendant and 
helpful participant so long as health allowed. All his 
utterances there came from an experience which had made 
trial of the life of faith and found it good. He had due 
regard for philosophy and theology, and was well inform- 
ed upon both. But religion was more to him than either. 
His thoughts were oftenest upon our actual needs as 
moral beings and God's satisfying grace. I remember 
that one evening our theme was that clause from the 
Apostle's creed : "He sitteth on the right hand of God, the 
Father Almighty." After others of us had spoken of the 
intercession of Christ, seeking far among relations, divine 
and human, for the meaning of the doctrine, his few gently 
spoken words brought the sublime truth home to our needy 
hearts with great, good cheer. The hand that was pierced 
reaches down to us in our wandering and weakness. He 
lifts us up and leads us to the throne of the Majestic One 
and says : "My Father, here is a child of Thine, he has 
often forgotten Thee and been heedless of Thy will ; but 
he needs Thy forgiveness and Thy love, and he knows he 
needs them ; put Thy hand upon his head and bless him 
and give him peace and teach him to be a true son in his 
true home." In prayer he seemed to be but lifting his face 
toward the Father in Heaven, with love and trust. His 
brief petitions came oftenest at the very close of our meet- 
ings, and like a real benediction sent us away with a hush 
in our hearts. 
Mr. White was a life-long student of the Bible. He 



thought one could never outgrow that book. Till a few 
months ago, when feebleness forbade further service, he 
was teacher of an adult class in the Sunday school. Here 
again the simplicity of his religious faith showed itself. 
He did not ignore the modern, critical methods of biblical 
study ; yet he loved and taught the Bible as a book of 
sublime and practical religious truth, the daily bread of 
spiritual life. At one anniversary of our local Bible 
society he was asked to speak ; and was not loth to do so, 
for he valued those occasions. But he cared to say little 
more than with graphic words to sketch a humble dwell- 
ing and an aged woman sitting childless and alone spelling 
out by dim candle light the ever new comfort of the 
twenty-third psalm. "That," said he, "is true religion. " 
But he loved the book of Nature, too ; and could read there 
clear lessons of God and of life. The physical world was 
to him deeply significant and sacred, as the scene of spir- 
itual life. He looked for God's hand and voice in it. He 
had reverence for these Berkshire mountains. His recre- 
ation was taken among them ; on foot in his athletic 
youth, in his carriage when age had made his body too 
weak a servant of his esthetic nature. "These hills," he 
said, "are our Jacob's ladder, leading up to God." Mr. 
White's broad sympathies and Christian love made him a 
life-long student and friend of missions, at home and 
abroad. He prayed with faith : "Thy kingdom come." He 
labored and gave as he prayed. He habitually attended 
the annual meetings of the American Home Missionary 
Society ; and of the American Board of Foreign Missions, 
of which he was a corporate member. For years he was a 
leading spirit in the missionary concerts of this church. 
His gifts to these and other agencies of evangelism and 
Christian education were systematic and liberal. A touch- 



ing incident of his last illness was the request that his 
weekly benevolent offering be sent to the church where 
his brethren were meeting for the worship in which he 
could no longer share. 

For eight years our friend had been a deacon in this 
church. As a church officer he was faithful and wise in 
counsel ; fond of the old ways, but never obstructive to 
reasonable innovation ; devoted to the spiritual interests 
of our household of faith, and sympathetic with the needs 
and tastes of all ; not forgetting the younger lives among 
us. I am sure we have all felt this church greatly blessed 
in having as a representative of its spirit and its mission 
this man "of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and 
wisdom." Upon us has fallen his goodly influence, as he 
walked with us in the toilsome path of life, as he sat an 
attentive worshiper in this house of prayer, and as he rev- 
erently bore to your hands the sacramental emblems of 
our Saviour's love. 

So in manyfold ways during this past score of years he 
has been bringing forth fruit in old age. But at last the 
weight of years has grown heavy and he rests from life's 
labors. Striving from his youth to lay up treasures in 
heaven, he found abundantly the best treasures of earth. 
We may count his riches in Coleridge's lines : 

These treasures (had he), love, and light, 

And calm thoughts, regular as infant's breath; 

And three firm friends, more sure than day and night, 
Himself, his Maker, and the angel Death. 

Yes, he had love ; his love for God, his love for his fel- 
low men, — that outflow of pure affection, which enriches 
the heart whence it springs ; love, too, of which he was 
himself the object, his conscious share in the wide love of 
God, and the love of kindred, neighbors, beneficiaries, — 



earth's sterling gold. And he had light. Where sight 
failed he walked by faith. To him the Sun of Righteous- 
ness had indeed risen. By that light he could discern a 
safe and pleasant path for his own feet. He could see, 
too, a sacred meaning in all life, that of the race and of 
individuals. So he became hopeful of moral progress ; 
was considerate of others ; and sought to adjust his own 
life to the sum of life about him. With love in the heart 
and light in the mind dwelt calm thoughts. "Let not 
your heart be troubled" found response in him ; for he 
"believed in God." He was not blind to the mystery and 
pain and conflict and unrest abroad in the world. But 
he knew it to be God's world after all; and that "He 
maketh the wrath of men to praise Him," in the ripening 
of His purposes. He believed, too, that we learn our 
noblest songs in suffering. His, also, were "the three firm 
friends." Himself ! He was not his own enemy. He 
befriended himself. From youth he had striven to give 
his immortal spirit a good home in a pure, sound body. 
A well stored mind and a sympathetic heart brought their 
life-long ministry to the whole man. He tried to be a 
faithful steward of the divine gift of a life, to make the 
most and best of himself ; and so was his own friend till 
the end came. His Maker ! What he would never say 
of himself we may say of him : "he walked with God; 
and he was not, for God took him." And the angel, 
Death ! To such as he, death is no foe. It calls to life 
and joy celestial. He had finished his work and laid up 
treasures in heaven. He could call the angel friend and 
walk with him calmly towards the better country of man's 
true citizenship. For death is not a sleep of forgetf ill- 
ness, but of refreshment. The awaking is to quickened 
energies and growing knowledge and likeness to Christ, — 
s 



"for we shall see him as he is." It is well with us to-day, 
even in our bereavement ; for the influence and benedic- 
tion of this good man abide with us. It is well with him ; 
for his long day of toil and evening of rest bring in the 
eternal morning. 



ADDRESS AT THE FUNERAL. 



It is hard for the mind to keep a firm hold on the doc- 
trine of immortality. When death touches us we shrink 
together like a sensitive plant. Invisible things, instead 
of crowding in to take the place of visible ones, seem as 
remote and as visionary as ever. The sense of interrup- 
tion, of unreality, of events familiar indeed, but ill appre- 
hended, remains with us in the presence of the dead, and 
our visible lives quickly close over these experiences as 
the waters of the ocean over the sinking sailor. 

This feeling of ignorance and estrangement may be 
natural, but is most, unspiritual and unsuitable. When 
one passes fitly, as our brother has passed, at the close of 
a long and fruitful life, into the unseen world, we would 
fain go with him in our thoughts and hopes, as along a 
familiar and cheerful path. We would feel that the har- 
vest of life has now been safely garnered, and that we are 
only waiting our summons to unite in the harvest feast. 

But we can not have a strong sense of things eternal 
without also having a constant and familiar interest in 
them. If our daily experiences have been of the day, 
they necessarily perish for the most part with the day. 
We are as the tree, which, at the close of the season, has 
dropped all its leaves, and whose naked branches must 
wait for the year yet remote to be clothed again. 

But there are interests taking hold on eternity that run 
along, side by side, with our daily pursuits. If these 
win our attention and fill our thoughts, our lives become 
by their means like the car which clutches an endless 



cable. They at once feel a motion of a new order, and 
begin to obey more permanent and serviceable impulses. 
One of those relations most comprehensive, and at the 
same time near and urgent, which embrace our lives, is that 
of the community. The tender connections of the house- 
hold pass out into it, and are in turn fed by it. By its 
ties, we are bound in a thousand ways to that spiritual 
world, that world of spirits, which is the substance of the 
record of human kind. The community is more compre- 
hensive than the church. The community receives and en- 
closes the church and waits to be leavened by it. The ulti- 
mate product of all divine grace is a kingdom, not a church 
but the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is 
a complete community, knit in love in all its varied and 
ample relations, and so fulfills the fundamental, creative 
purpose in the mind of God. The energies which have 
wrought creatively in the community run back to the very 
beginning of events. They embrace the whole historic 
record. The energies which are to shape the community as 
it approaches its divine ideal are to reach through the en- 
tire future. Here, truly, is an endless cable in the spiritual 
realm. If our lives, by their labors, their aspirations, their 
constant forecast, are interlinked in this movement, they 
will have a deeper hold on eternity than on time, on the 
years that are forever flowing than on those now with us. 
The brevity of the period we occupy is, in this connection 
no more significant than the narrowness of the wharf from 
which we leave one continent, voyaging to another. The 
eye may and must reach backward to the farthest horizon 
of history to understand the nature of those influences that 
here and now pass under our hand, and admit of modifi- 
cation by us. The eye, in the clear vision of faith, must 
forecast the remote future to discover the ample and re- 



wardful growth of its own immediate labors. We are not 
so much mortal as immortal in our lives. We stand where 
God stands, between an infinite past and an infinite future, 
helping to knit them together into His everlasting king- 
dom. Let these realities be to us realities all through life, 
deepened in their hold on the mind by many a cogent 
experience under them, and we shall feel, as death comes 
to us, that the crumbling soil has now been cleared away 
from the solid rock, and that our feet stand without sepa- 
ration on that which has all along supported them. 

Our departed brother was deeply and habitually impress- 
ed and possessed by these relations which assign us a place 
in the ever growing purposes of God. He took a profound 
interest in those social and civil influences which have so 
long been operative on us as a nation. He felt, as a con- 
stant, stimulating sentiment, the patrimony bequeathed us, 
and how potential it may be, it ought to be, in all the his- 
tory of the world. Scarcely another have I known who re- 
sponded so certainly to any concernment of the state, any 
influence that was touching the progress of events in the 
community. Not merely did the public labors which had 
fallen to him lay upon him this interest, this interest came 
in to give breadth and insight and effectiveness to those 
labors. He stood between our past and future history, as 
a people, and strove to unite them in one worthy and con- 
tinuous development toward freedom and social life. He 
was, what every public servant and every citizen ought to 
be, a builder of the public prosperity, in things at hand 
and in things remote. His last effort, like earlier efforts, 
was in the annual assembly of citizens, gathered for the 
choice of rulers. 

My most pleasant and distinct memories of him are of 
his aidfullness in the cause of education in this town, of 



the warmth with which he resisted the sluggishness, and 
the force with which he exposed the parsimony, that stood 
in the way of our schools. He has been for years in our 
town-meetings an inspiration to every impulse worthy of 
being inspired. 

One can stand pleasurably and with widened vision at 
this grave of our neighbor, endeared to us in so many 
ways, Hon. Joseph White. One can move at this burial 
as if keeping step with the purposes of God. Life is deep- 
ened by the experiences of the life that is ended here. 
The years are enriched by taking to themselves all that 
was most fervant, spontaneous and patriotic in the labors 
now closed. Our brother stands, where we would all 
stand, in that long file of faithful citizens whom citizen- 
ship has helped to redeem, and who have helped to redeem 
citizenship. "We are here, not in solitude and separation, 
but with the worthy of our beloved land all about us, 
ready to receive their collective consecration to a like in- 
heritance in the history of the nation and of mankind. 



PRAYER. 



Almighty and everlasting Lord, whose tender mercies 
are over all thy works ; whose thoughts are always thoughts 
of mercy to give us an expected end ; who art ever inter- 
weaving the plans and purposes, the achievements and 
failures of men to bring in the reign of righteousness and 
peace ; and who dost turn the darkest hour into the prom- 
ise of eternal life, we come to Thee. We come to bless 
and praise Thee that Thou art glorious in counsel and ex- 
cellent in working, and that we, the children of men, have 
such abundant reason to put our trust in the shadow of 
Thy wing. 

And, gracious Lord, we lift up our hearts to bless Thee 
for the treasure that dwelleth in earthen vessels ; for the 
divine presence and power that has never failed from the 
hearts of men, since Thou didst first create the race, and 
especially for the company of apostles and martyrs and 
good men, who, since the coming of our Lord, have fought 
a good fight and kept the faith, and having endured as see- 
ing Him who is invisible, have received the welcome into 
the larger service of Thy heavenly kingdom. 

Almighty God, who seest the end from the beginning, 
to whom the life of each of Thy dear children is an object 
of loving thought, we praise Thee that Thy fatherly care 
and gracious guidance have directed the steps of our de- 
parted brother, and into Thy presence we come with grate- 
ful reverence for the solemn service by which we give him 
back to Thee. We praise Thee for the faith and patience, 
for the serenity and dignity of the life now ended. We 



praise Thee for its beneficence, its long continuance, and 
for its loyalty to the Divine Master who loved us and gave 
himself for us. We bless Thee that in all our hearts to-day 
rises the comforting thought that he whom we mourn has 
lived a pure and godly life, ever looking for the coming 
of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. And now that 
He has come and touched our friend, and beckoned him 
through the door which He has robbed of its terror by His 
own going and return ; now that He who brought life 
and immortality to light, has led our beloved into the 
peace and rest of His own conquering, may we, rejoicing 
in the victory that overcometh, renew our allegiance to 
the Master, that we, too, may have an abundant entrance 
into Thine everlasting kingdom. 

Gracious Father, we lift our voices to Thee who didst 
manifest Thy love in our Saviour's love, who didst in Him 
visit the household at Bethany and restore her support to 
the widow, and beseech Thee to give the consolation of 
Thine own presence to those who mourn and especially to 
her who must from this hour walk in strange solitude and 
grief. Let the gentleness that faith assures us marks Thy 
dealing with Thine own, the pity that the father has for 
his children be very plain to her as her steps follow her 
beloved. May He who leads his flock like a shepherd and 
carries the weary and aged like lambs i> his bosom abide 
with her to the end. 

And for all those who have known intimately the benig- 
nity and purity and beneficence of this life, and have walk- 
ed in the joyful encouragement of its light, we pray that 
they may turn from this hour with renewed love and faith 
to Him from whom has come the purity and manliness of 
our departed friend. 

We beseech Thee, our Heavenly Father, to bless the 



institutions with which our brother was so long connect- 
ed. We praise Thee that in so many places in this Com- 
monwealth to-day grateful thoughts arise to Thee for 
inspiration and guidance that came from him. And we 
beseech Thee to impart unto all those directing the coun- 
sels of the institutions which he loved the same spirit of 
devotion and zeal for the Master that governed him, that 
all these institutions may be consecrated by uplifting 
faith and ardent love to the service of the redeemer of 
men. 

We ask Thy blessing upon this community, upon the 
aged servants of the Lord still with us, upon the pastor 
and officers of this church of which he was so long a mem- 
ber, upon all the good with whom our friend walked in 
loving sympathy and who shall see his face no more. And 
as one by one the tried and tested veterans of Thy serv- 
ice go over to the church triumphant, may the young be 
trained by wise methods and chiefly by the guidance of 
Thy holy spirit to take the places of those to whom rest 
is given that Thy kingdom may come and that our Divine 
Lord' may see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. 
And may the wealth of all our churches and the talents of 
all believers be wholly consecrated to the coming of His 
kingdom. 

Gracious Lord, in this solemn hour, in the remembrance 
of the brevity of life and of the misuse of our privileges 
and opportunities, we would praise Thee anew for the life 
of our Lord, for its temptations and victories, its sympa- 
thies and patience, its cross and passion, and beseech 
Thee to forgive us by His atoning love for our sins and 
wilfulness that we may be washed and cleansed and made 
fit for the companionship of Thy glorified saints and for 
the service in which misunderstandings and jealousies and 



greed shall have no place, and we shall see, eye to eye, 
and know even as we are known. 

And now as we wend our way to the place of the dead, 
let Thy holy spirit rest upon us. Repress our fears, and 
revive our faith, and give us Thy peace. 

Our Father who art in Heaven. 







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